On the last night of the month, when her child was asleep, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu (from Lao Cai) pulled her spending book closer under the table lights in a rented room of more than 40m2 in the center of Phu Tho province.
Next to it is a phone displaying a thick spreadsheet with numbers just added up several times.
Rent of 4.5 million VND. Tuition and semi-boarding for a 4-year-old son is nearly 3 million VND. Milk, diapers, and pocket medicine are more than 1.5 million VND. Market money is about 4 million VND. Electricity, water, and Internet are nearly 1.2 million VND.
Gasoline, phone costs about 1 million VND. Installment payment for a motorbike is 1.8 million VND. Not to mention that each month, the couple tries to send back to give to both paternal and maternal relatives a sum, sometimes 1 million, sometimes 2 million VND, depending on the month.
Her husband, Mr. Le Van Dung, sat opposite, silently looking at the newly received payroll. The total income of both husband and wife, who are both workers, is about 22 million VND/month. On paper, that is not too low an income. But after deducting fixed amounts, the remaining amount is insignificant.
Every month when my child is sick, there is a wedding, and something happens, the plan is turned upside down. My husband and I don't dare to spend anything for ourselves, but we still always feel shortage," Ms. Thu said.
What made Ms. Thu feel heavy was not exactly the difficult months, but the feeling of pressure repeatedly.
As soon as the salary returned to the account, it was almost all divided among the payables. The money had not yet warmed their hands when they had to be transferred.
In that life, marital conflict does not come from something too big. It can start with a light question: "Why is there so much market money this month?", or a sigh when the child demands to buy a more expensive box of foreign milk, once considering whether to go to a wedding in the countryside or send an envelope, or the matter of both paternal and maternal relatives having needs for support at the same time.
Many times I feel sorry for myself, because I work all day but still have to sit and calculate every hundred thousand VND. Sometimes just because of a small surcharge, my husband and I are silent with each other all evening," Ms. Thu recounted.
In another case, Ms. Hoang Mai Anh - a kindergarten teacher in Tuyen Quang - said that both husband and wife have stable salaries, with a total income of about 18 million VND/month. But because they are paying in installments for a small apartment and have children going to kindergarten, almost every month they have to calculate very carefully.
It's not about food and clothing shortages, but I don't dare to breathe hard either. As long as the child is sick for a few days, the air conditioner breaks down, or an extra wedding, it takes a whole month to shrink back," she said.
